Our “Vote of the Week” features Energy XXI. A company with triennial Say on Pay votes, Energy XXI received 26% support in 2014 after receiving 90% support in 2011. The decreased support is likely due to increasing CEO pay opportunity and Committee determination of above-target annual incentive payouts during a period of mixed financial and market results, as well as above-median benchmarking practices and grants of long-term incentive and retention awards that are not rigorously performance-based. Read more

Our “Vote of the Week” features Electronic Arts. Electronic Arts (EA) received 55% vote support in 2014 after receiving 93% support in 2013. The decreased support is likely due to a promotional $8.6MM stock option award granted to the CEO, adoption of a re-testing provision for annual PRSU grants, a decrease in the proportion of future equity grants subject to performance-based vesting conditions from 50% to 25%, and targeting the 75th percentile of peers when determining the value of annual equity grants. Read more

Our “Vote of the Week” features Guess? and Aéropostale. The two companies each failed in 2014 with Guess?, a triennial Say on Pay company, receiving 34% support in 2014 after receiving 68% support in 2011, and Aéropostale receiving 36% support in 2014 after receiving 99% support in 2013. Both companies recently entered into new employment agreements with their respective CEOs which provide for large equity awards despite negative long-term shareholder returns. These commonalities in pay and performance likely led to similar vote outcomes. Read more

Our “Vote of the Week” features Abercrombie & Fitch. Abercrombie received 96% vote support in 2014 after receiving 20% in 2013. Despite stock price underperformance, the increased vote support is likely due to a new employment agreement with CEO Michael Jeffries, a redesign of annual and long-term incentive plans, and increased use of performance-based equity with multi-year performance conditions. Read more

Our “Vote of the Week” features Time Warner Cable. TWC received 62% vote support in 2014 after receiving 88% in 2013. The decreased vote support is likely due to acceleration of 2015 and 2016 LTI awards in 2014 to mitigate merger retention concerns, increased potential payments under a change-in-control, and supplementary 2014 bonus that provides up to an additional 50% of target with the completion of the merger. Read more

Our “Vote of the Week” features New York Community Bancorp. NYCB, a company with triennial Say on Pay votes, received 46% vote support in 2014 after receiving 83% in 2011. The decreased vote support is likely due to sizable and increasing tax gross-up payments made upon the vesting of equity awards, lack of clawback or stock-holding policies for executives, and use of identical performance goals in the annual and long-term incentive plans. Read more

Our “Vote of the Week” features Medidata Solutions. Medidata received 43% vote support in 2014 after receiving 98% in 2013. Despite strong shareholder returns, the Company received a year-over-year decrease in support of 55% likely due to high relative CEO pay, significant and identical pay packages for both the CEO and the President, and a year-over-year increase in the CEO’s and President’s pay of 155% ($4.2MM) largely driven by two special awards. Read more

Our "Vote of the Week" features Kilroy Realty. Kilroy received 87% vote support in 2014 after failing in each of the three prior years. The Company likely received increased year over year support due to Changes to the annual and long-term incentive plans, increased emphasis on multi-year performance in the long-term incentive plan, continued shareholder outreach, and submission of a proposal to require a majority vote for uncontested director elections. Read more